Our Battle With Discouragement

Discouragement. Because brethren around the world face this battle, we are prone to it because we'll take life. Traumatic events, we'll take it on the chin many times in life. We'll have people problems. We'll have loss of jobs or loss of businesses. We'll have family issues. We'll have marital problems. For some, sadly, they know what it feels like to be separated or, worse than that, divorced. We have those who have serious illnesses. Sometimes illnesses that go on and on and on. It's difficult to find answers. We have rejection. We'll be criticized. And, of course, all of these can come crashing down on us, and we just simply become discouraged. I have a Webster's New World dictionary at the office, and pulling it out and looking up the word, discourage, it defines it this way. To discourage is to deprive of courage. To make less confident or hopeful. To dishearten. It just saps the life out of us. Just saps the resolve to get up and go on. The prefix, this, we know means without or to do the opposite of or deprive of, but then, to discourage is to deprive of courage. And it disheartens us, where we don't have the strength to get up and go on. A discouraged person loses interest in accomplishing anything. A discouraged Christian loses the will to continue in the battle, like we heard about in the sermonette that we all have with Satan and with this society around us and self. Yeah, we turn on the news. Probably all of us check the news headlights every day, headlines every day or every other day. And, you know, it can be discouraging. You hear about earthquakes. You hear about loonies with guns in airports. You hear about, well, all kinds of strife over from Libya and Egypt, across over to Syria and spreading. You hear about things happening in Iran and around the world, and it can be disheartening. The Bible is replete with examples of people who have fallen prey to being discouraged. And when problems arose, they decided, I'm going to get out of here, kind of like Jonah. God gave Jonah a call, and he said, I want you to go to the Assyria, to those of Nineveh.

I want you to take a message of repentance to them. And, you know, I really think that Jonah had enough, probably had some prophecies where God had said, Assyria will be the tool he will use to punish Israel. And Jonah wasn't going to have anything to do with it. He decided to get out of there and take a quick ship to Tarshish, however fast a quick ship was in those days.

But, you know, when God gives you a job, you're going to do that job. He's going to find a way to get you to do that job. Elijah, it always fascinates me to read back that story, 1 Kings 18, this time of the prophets of Baal, the prophets of the grove, and the sacrifices they had. And they were crying out to their gods and cutting themselves.

And Elijah's lying over there saying, yell a little louder, maybe he can't hear you, maybe he's asleep. And then it comes about the time of the evening sacrifice. And Elijah lays out his sacrifice. He has him go get some water, a barrel of water, and dump on it, and do it again. And then a little, little short, brief prayer. And the fire of God came and consumed. And the next chapter, Jezebel, Ahab's wife, says, if I don't make you like those men, and what did Elijah do? He ran. He fled. And again, God had a way of bringing him back. But running from problems never solves a thing. Discouragement is generally cause and effect. And when the cause can be dealt with, the discouragement can go away. Easier said than done. Let's first look at some causal factors, some common causes for discouragement. Common causes of discouragement. And number one on the list is Satan the Devil. As human beings, we tend to look across the crowd of, you know, of, well, of our family, of where we work, or look at somebody across the congregation, somebody in the local community. And we tend to put a human face too many times to some of our problems. When we forget that behind the scenes we have an adversary. Revelation tells us that he is the accuser of the brethren, and I think we should realize that he regularly takes our name before God the Father to accuse us. And he will keep trying the doors to find a way into our mind. He will persist. He will not give up. His purpose is to completely destroy and thwart the working of God in building a family through human beings. That he wants us, and where God wants us to be, his eternal family. He is described in the Bible as being like a serpent. He's described as being like a lion. And, of course, both of those animals. Certainly the lion, the cat, would be more familiar with how they will stalk and how they will lie in wait and how they will attack when the attack is not expected. Let's turn back to 1 Samuel 16. 1 Samuel 16. And here we have an example that comes from the day's King Saul. And this is on the heels of how Samuel had been sent to the household of Jesse and had gone through, you know, the sons from Eliabon had come through. And then he anointed David to become the next king. Then the chapter goes on and returns to Saul, who was king and who God left as king. Verse 14, But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. Now back to chapter 10, it tells how the Spirit of God came upon him, and he was turned into a different man.

Now, some have suggested this word translated for us as departed is more of a progressive sense of it was departing. It was in the process because generally God's Spirit, it can be quenched, but it's generally a long process of grieving the Spirit and of not responding to the lead of the Spirit. But whichever way, the Spirit of God, Saul didn't have help. And we look here and we get an insight into what it did in his mind. A distressing Spirit from the Lord troubled him. Now, God is sovereign. He has all power. There are evil demon spirits. God often will allow a Spirit to work. And I think, again, the way it is presented here, the way it's translated, probably is a bit challenging and then kind of leaves us with the feeling and understanding it's not there. The evil spirit, if God will relax his hedge, is going to charge in there to see what kind of damage can be done. And Saul's servants said to him, isn't it interesting that these servants that Saul had recognized that there's an evil presence here. Surely a distressing Spirit from God is troubling you. Let our Master now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is a skillful player on a harp, that it shall be that when he will play with his hand, when the distressing Spirit from God is upon you, you shall be well. Again, it's interesting. They recognized there is a cause and cause and effect situation here. And they recognized that Saul would get in these deep, depressing, discouraging funks. If I can use that word, funk, you know, we talk about being in a funk, just being down and depressed. They recognized if we can get someone to come and play a godly, uplifting, glorifying type music, we're going to change because, you know, music is the language of emotion. We're going to change the whole environment where that evil spirit can't work and it will leave.

And as you follow the story on down, they found David, the son of Bethlehemite, who is scuffle and playing, a mighty man of valor. And so they sent for David. And let's just go to the end of the chapter, verse 23. And so it was, whenever the Spirit from God was upon Saul, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand.

Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him.

So, Satan, we have to list him as a primary instigator, as a foremost cause for discouragement. And when we get discouraged, when we get even down and depressed, should we not, first of all, wonder about Satan the devil?

Let's look at 2 Corinthians 2, and we'll read verse 11. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 11. And I just want to notice the fact here that he speaks of Satan having certain devices.

2 Corinthians 2, verse 11.

And maybe we should ask, are we ignorant of his devices? What type of devices does Satan have? Well, a little earlier in this very chapter, he talked about this one who had actually been put out of the church in the first letter, brought back that they were to accept and to welcome that man, but apparently they were still somewhat shunning him. And he told them, through over much sorrow, you can blow someone away. You can just totally discourage them, that they're defeated. Another device of Satan is bitterness. Another one is anger. Satan would love to get in there and get us so angry that we lose control. And when we lose control, the door of the mind is open for outside influence. And I would say influence is not from God, not the type of influence we want. Fear. Fear is another device Satan uses. We're talking about discouragement today. That certainly is one of his tools. Guilt. Satan wants us to go back and remember. He wants us in our mind to bring back the baggage, the shackles from the past. Things that God has forgiven and washed away and removed as far as the east is from west. But Satan's been pretty successful in getting us burdened down with guilt, despair. We could go on and on. But his objective with Christians is to get us to lose heart. To think slowly of ourselves that we want to throw in the towel and give up and go away. The next time a discouraging mood fills your mind for no apparent reason, perhaps we should stop and consider whether Satan the devil, the adversary, is trying to trip us up. That's one causal area, a causal factor. Number two, another cause, is perceived failure. Perceived failures. There's something about us as humans. We sometimes feel that we have failed and it discourages us. I should have looked up there. There's a quote about Thomas Edison. Finally, after all those tests, all those failures, finally the incandescent bulb that we may have. We may be able to get a few of those still. The old bulb. But he made it common. It's something like he first tried 10,000 ways that it wouldn't work. In other words, he failed 10,000 times, you might say, but he didn't view it that way. I tried all these thousands of ways to find what wouldn't work until I finally found out what would work. He looked at it differently. Years ago, when we lived out in California, I loved going backpacking, well, hiking day hikes up in the high country. The Sierra Nevadas go up to nearly 14,500. And that was a few years ago. And a few pounds ago. I enjoyed going up Mount Whitney twice. I took Ben up there just before we moved and then went back years later with Jenny when she was in college. I went up to 12,000 and I had a book. And I said, Jenny, I'm going to be lying there by that stream when you come back down. So she went on to the top and down by herself. But I remember at the time reading a guidebook of a man named Clarence King was the first one to be out in those areas. He was working for the U.S. Geological Survey. And they were trying to determine which one was the highest mountain and was it the highest in the United States. At that time, of course, it didn't include Alaska, which has 16 peaks taller. He finally decided he found the one. And he and his team climbed to the top. Now, they didn't have a nicely maintained trail like I walked a few years ago. But they finally got to the top. He set up his level. And what did he find? He found he was not on the highest mountain. He had named it Mount Tyndall for his boss back in Washington, D.C. He found several that were higher. And from that point, he could see Mount Whitney, as it was later called, was the highest mountain.

He had prided himself that he was going to be the first one to climb to the top. However, before he and his crew got down, resupplied, and started going up, another team beat him to the top of Mount Whitney. Anyhow, he wrote about how discouraged he was. He for a while perceived himself as a failure. But then someone helped him turn it around and realize how much he had accomplished. You know, as Christians, the path is not always marked as well as we would like. And it has been said that our calling is more of a journey than a destination. We have all kinds of course corrections. As for us, we're headed in a direction we've never been before. And there are times we may find we need to correct the direction a little.

We have many limitations, and Satan would love to have us focus upon inadequacies and times when we go maybe a wrong direction. The first time I climbed Mount Whitney, there was a group of eight of us from the Bakersfield Church, and there were two young men.

They left us behind. They built logging roads at about 9,000 to 11,000. I mean, they were in incredible condition. They left us behind, but they got up to a certain place, and they took a wrong turn. And they went so far, and they realized they went the wrong way. And some of us old fat guys got to the top before they did.

Well, they could have perceived themselves failures, but theirs was just a mistake. But Satan would love for us to focus on our perceived failures. You know, you think back, there are a number of examples of Bible we could turn to. God, by one miracle after another, look at what He did to Egypt, brought them to their knees, so to speak, practically destroyed the nation, brought Israel out. Pharaoh had told Moses, take them and get out of here. And then He changed his mind. And Israel is at that point. They've got mountains on one side, the sea ahead, and here comes Pharaoh's chariots.

How did they react? They got pretty down and discouraged, you know, and they complained to Moses, You bring us out here in the wilderness. Many times they said that, you bring us out here to kill us. But what did Moses say? He said, stand still and see the salvation of God, and held out that staff, and the waters parted, and of course, the winds dried it by night. And we know that story.

Some time later, the selection of the twelve spies, one from each tribe, who went in and spied out the land for 40 days, and found what a marvelous land it is, what a land of production, milk and honey. And they came back, and what was the report? Ten said, the people that live there, you don't want to ever fight them. And the people got discouraged, because you know, discouragement is one of the most contagious things there is on earth.

And Caleb and Joshua were saying, the land's there, the people are so big, if we fight them, we can't help but hit them. But the people believed that you were report. So there are many examples we could turn to. I got here without a little book written by Robert Fulgham. You're probably familiar with his first book, All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. And he has all these little short stories. And one time, he tells the story of this Jewish man who went to his rabbi in New York City.

And he was complaining to his rabbi that, well, I'm such a failure, I don't even succeed less than half the time. What do I do? The rabbi said, go to the library, find the New York Times Almanac, such and such year, turn to page 972, I think it was, and there you will find wisdom. So the man hurries off the library, finds the book, page 972. What does he find? It has in order the listing of the lifetime batting averages of the greatest baseball hitters of all time. Whose name is that top? Ty Cobb. Close, but Ty Cobb. And what did it say? His lifetime batting average. I mean, this is a career-long batting average.

367. What does that mean? Well, the guy goes back to his rabbi. Ty Cobb, 367, what does that mean? It means that not much over a third of the time, he succeeded. And almost two-thirds of the time, Ty Cobb failed.

So essentially, who are you to think that you're such a failure? Get up, get on with life. Well, God has told us it is His good pleasure to give us the kingdom, and we need to keep our eyes focused on that. Another pitfall, another cause of discouragement. Number three can be pride. Pride. It seems that Satan has success getting some of us to have this passionate desire for being acknowledged, for being recognized, for being seen as being something great and successful.

We could look at King David, and we will later, but think of King David. In 1 Kings 16, he is anointed to become the next king. However, there was a current king. And he obviously realized it was not his calling to lift his hand against God's anointed, the man who sat there in that kingship, Saul. The years came and they went, as God left Saul on that throne. And during that time, David began to be noticed from the time killing Goliath. And you remember how the people were singing. Saul killed his thousands, but David's his tens of thousands. He had a target. He had a target that he wore.

And Saul went after him. David was persecuted. He was chased. He was hunted. He was abused. There were times when, later in life, from his own family, remember how Absalom was seeking to steal the kingdom from him. There was a time when he was having to flee. And who was the guy? Was it Shimei? Shimei came out cursing and kicking dust and throwing rocks. And Joab said, you know, why is this dead dog still living?

He wanted to go take his head off. And David said, essentially, I probably have it coming. But David was chased and persecuted. And yet again, he kept his eyes on what God had for him. And in due time, he was king, first over Judah for 7 1⁄2 years, and then for 33 years, a long time, he was over all of Israel, including Judah.

I think that serves as a type for us, because we are the saints of Almighty God. And there is a time when He will give us the kingdom. That time has not come yet. We will reign with Christ for a thousand years, but in the meantime, we wait. We endure. We take what comes at us.

And we fight against the human tendency, the satanic tendency, to get down and discouraged and just want to give up. And we have to get up and go on. We look at other examples. Human nature, being what it is, can lead us to all kinds of frustration, because it wants to be noticed and recognized and exalted. Corodathan and Ibiram, you take too much on yourselves. God has worked for us too. Simon the Magician, he saw that by laying on the hands of the apostles' hands, the Holy Spirit was given.

He wanted to buy it. And Peter told him, you and your money perish. We have Nebuchadnezzar, and at one time he goes out there looking out over the city.

See this great city that I have built? And God jerked to the Spirit and man. He lived as a beast for seven years after that. But all kinds of frustration that come, and it all goes back to pride. Just remember the story of the two men who went up to pray. In fact, let's just go over Luke 10. Make that 18 beginning of verse 10. I get in even more trouble when I don't have it written down.

But Luke 18, verse 10, two men go up to pray. One's a Pharisee. He's of the most powerful sect of Judaism of that time. As he says in addressing God, I think I'm not like other men. Well, we've got a problem already there. Extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. The tax collector was kind of the dregs of society, a Jew working for the Romans to take tax money of Jews to give to the Romans, and they were notorious for feathering in their own nest, siphoning off some funds. Verse 12, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.

And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but be to his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. And then Jesus said, I tell you, this man, this publican, this tax collector, went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. And pride so often gets in the way, trips us up. Pride can lead us to be discouraged because we can be led to be wanting so much for ourselves. And God says, it's not your time yet.

I think another cause for discouragement, number four, is just the human body. But there can be a number of factors that lead us toward discouragement. We've probably all known people who have had some cognitive challenges, that sometimes there's a need for lithium. Thankfully, man has discovered a lot. Sometimes there's a solution. Sometimes it's hormonal. We all have these hormonal cycles. The world talks a lot about the cycles, the peaks and the valleys a woman goes through during her menstrual years. And then there's menopause, but a man goes through andropause. And some of the hormones like the testosterone begins to tank, and he begins to mellow out and chill out, and it's a little easier to live with as he gets a few years under his belt. But there are other things we oftentimes do to ourselves. Lack of sleep, improper diets, unbalanced diets, going to various excesses, burning the candle at both ends, sometimes sickness. And of course, any time there's a medication involved, they always have side effects that can adversely affect our mental outlook on life. So, number four is the human body. That can be, and we shouldn't rule that out. Sometimes maybe there's need for blood work just to find out. You know, there's something missing, something lacking here. And then number five is man's society, just this world around us. Man's society. Let's look at 2 Timothy 3. You turn on the news, and it's just discouraging. As I said a while ago, some nutcase with a gun walking into LA International. You've got earthquakes off Japan. Someone told me of Taiwan. Inspectors in Syria right now, and of course, it was pretty well known that a lot of Saddam Hussein's, you know, the nerve, the biological weaponry ended up over in Syria, although there were those screaming that they never found it, so the president lied at that time. It can be a discouraging world out there, except you and I can read the end of the book, and we realize that God has a plan. It's perfectly on time. But here in 2 Timothy 3 verse 1, But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of themselves. I think there's a bit of that running around society here today, isn't there? And let us all ever be on guard that we're not in that category.

Lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers. Is it blasphemy to deny that we pray in our schools, that we read the Word of God in our schools, or in public functions? Disobedient to parents, I believe there's a bit of that going around. Unthankful. We do live in an age of ingratitude. Unholy, unloving, unforgiving. Slanderers without self-control. Brutal. Despisers of good. Traitors, headstrong, haughty. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. We could go on here, but just the slander. Who in their right mind would want to hold a national office? Because you just get shot at all the time.

And the President, the leaders in the House and the Senate, Senators and Congressmen and women, who would want the job? Because of all the things that are said about them, whether it's right or whether it's wrong. It's all the time. So this is society. Or you walk in a store, walk in a mall, and you hear the filthy language. And you've got a sexual innuendo behind so much. You've got places where you... there's no smoking in the building, but they go outside and congregate by the door. You've got to walk in and out of the smoke. You've got people driving down the road who drive like crazy people. But we live in a world of violence and deceit and dishonesty, and all of this can affect us. Well, I will shift over to a different part of the sermon now. And I want to give you four quick points on dealing with discouragement. Battling discouragement. And number one is God. We have to draw close to God, and we have to stay close to God. We have to be spiritually minded. Discouragement attacks the carnal mind. Now back... some of you will remember back in the worldwide Church of God in the 1980s and into the early part of the 90s, they had what was called the Ministerial Refreshing Program. Ministerial Refreshing Program. And the first one was three weeks long, and Mr. Armstrong realized it's too long, and then all the rest of them were two weeks, or almost two weeks. And the first... I believe it was the first one. And there was this class on Ministerial Burnout. And I thought, what? We have a class like that. Well, how old was I? I was 30. How long had I been in the field ministry full-time? About two months.

I would look at that a little differently today, and I would think, you know, I wish I had a recording of that. I'd like to listen to that again. But it was like an hour and a half, hour and 45 minute lecture, mainly, because we were a large group. It had to be a lecture. You couldn't really have a small group give and take. But it covered all these facts and research and all of these details. And then, right at the end, the presenter got to the point where he said, all right, here's the answer in a nutshell.

And I'm there with pen and net paper, and I'm ready to write it down. And essentially, he said, there is no secret formula, just prayer, Bible study, and periodic fasting. And I sat there and thought, I thought he was about to tell us the secret of secrets of all life. And you know what? He did. As we're close to God, it changes a lot more than we ever realize. There are thoughts and attitudes that just simply can't take root.

Let's look at James 4. We looked at this the last, well, there in the Bible study when we finished up James. James 4, and we'll read verses 6 through 10. Verse 6, but he gives more grace. Therefore, he says, God resists the proud, according from back in Proverbs 3. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

That's written there as though it is a genuine promise, and it is. As we are close to God, Satan simply cannot work in the way that he might otherwise. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. In the back of the prophet Isaiah said, Seek me while I may be found. God will be found if we seek him. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. That speaks to a point that I want to bring out here in just a minute. That has to do with the fact that we have to change, sometimes the way we are.

We have to repent, yes, but we have to become obedient. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your heart, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. He will lift you up. Human strength is insufficient. The mind of God is essential in battling with discouragement. You might wonder, what does the Spirit of God provide? Well, it enlightens the mind.

It opens our understanding. It allows us to see what we can't see because it allows us to have the vision to see beyond this life. It reminds us that this life is a training ground. It's a temporary existence. But what we experience teaches us for eternity. It prepares the soil for God to work. It imparts courage. Being close to God imparts courage. Because, I think I've mentioned this before, but one commentary I read once about David fighting Goliath. And he likened it to Israel, looked across, and listened to Goliath, and said, The guy over there is too big to fight. And that David looked at him and said, The guy is too big to miss.

He knew that if with God's help I throw something at him, I'm going to hit him. Can't help but. So, the Spirit of God is that which can provide the courage, the motivation, the new life, the zest for life to go forward. Psalm 27. Psalm 27. And let's read verse 4. You know, David, again, this is a Psalm of David. And like we talked about him earlier, he's anointed to become the next king. And then in the intervening years, he's chased, he's abused, he had a javelin thrown at him once, and I'm sure a psalm meant to take his life. And even after he was king, he had wars and battles, and he had his own head of sun trying to take his life, take his kingdom, at least.

And, you know, this is a Psalm where David, so many times, a lot of times you read the Psalm, and David's really down in a deep hole. But as you read through the Psalm, you see he works it through, and he's back on that positive high again. But this time, you know, we should see verse 2, because it's a time when the wicked came against me.

We don't know exactly what time, but it could have been many times. My heart shall not fear, though war may rise against me. In this I will be confident. One thing I've desired of the Lord, that will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. So David said one thing I want, there's one reason for me to be, and that's what God has as far as eternity, yet ahead for me, the kingdom of God.

Verse 14, in the meantime, he says, verse 14, wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. How many times does the Bible say that? Do the Psalms say that? Humanly, we get in such an all-fired hurry. We want things immediately. We're in such an age of impatience. People who've got a few decades under their belt remember time, when they had to save for a while and lay aside, then you go buy that which you needed.

And today, it's slap that piece of plastic out there, and let's have it now, and then worry about how to pay for it later. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. And then he repeats, wait, I say, on the Lord. When we sing of Him, God will see us through, and God truly will see us through whatever the problem is, whatever the circumstance, whatever the frustration, God can see us through if we will allow Him. But we have to be close to Him.

We have to be on His wavelength. And draw close, and as we do, we're less susceptible to discouragement. Point number two has to do with zeal. Be zealous. Be passionate. I remember talking with an older lady. This is many years ago. I wonder how old she was. Maybe her age started with the number six, like mine does now. But at the time she told me this, she seemed really old. But she said, you know, Mr. Dobson, I can see my calling just as clearly today as I could 40 years ago when God first opened my mind.

You know, it was that real and genuine to her. And she had a real passion for it. And I wonder how many of us can say that? Because humanly, we tend to become dull of hearing. And we tend to become tired and lazy. And when we're that way, we can be easily discouraged. And everything begins to take so much effort.

Now, let's go to Numbers 13. I referred to this a while ago, but the time when Israel came up across from the Promised Land, and a spy was chosen from each of the tribes, and the report came back, there were two of them. They were filled with zeal for what God was leading them to do. Numbers 13, verse 30, first of all, this is after they had gone in, spied out the land 40 days. Verse 30, then, Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.

Well, then you have the evil report of the ten, and the talk about the giants in verse 33. Let's go to chapter 14. Chapter 14, verse 6, But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephneh, who were among those who had spied out the land, tore their clothes and spoke to the congregation of the children of Israel, saying, The land we pass through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. And if the Lord delights in us, if the Lord delights in us, we have to be close to God.

We have to be wanting what God wants for us. We have to be seeking God's will for Him to delight in us. Then He will bring us into the land and give it to us, and the land which flows with milk and honey, only do not rebel against the Lord. They understood what it was. It was a rebellion that was taking place. The attitudes of Caleb and Joshua are the attitudes that we need. Stay off the bench and continue running the race God has given us.

Put our shoulders to the plow, as Jesus said, and not look back. And that takes zeal. That takes passion. Number three is obedience. We need to be an obedient people, because sin breaks our contact with God. Sin destroys having God's mind and seeing things the way God wants us to see things. Sin begins creating negative attitudes that breed failure and hopelessness. It leaves us open to depression and discouragement and guilt. Subsequently, we lose interest in our spiritual goals, because our energies become focused in other areas, instead of the things of God.

God is the source of our strength. He imparts to us, if we allow Him, the confidence, the vision, the courage, and the inspiration to move forward. In spite of obstacles, we will all have obstacles. We will all have setbacks. But obedience, living by within the parameters of the law of God, is so important in battling against discouragement. Number four is to have dreams.

Or should I just say to dream? To dream dreams! Not that many weeks back, most of us were able to go off to the feast. Or perhaps some were here at home and listened to messages and focused on the feast and the kingdom of God the best they could. But we had a beautiful dream, probably painted for us. We had enough sermons, enough messages that would take us three months or more back here at home.

All packed into eight days. And we had this dream of the reign of Jesus Christ. And we were challenged to dream of what will be as Christ comes to rule over the earth. What a wonderful world it will become. Let's look at Philippians 4 verse 13. Philippians 4 verse 13. And let's remember, the Apostle Paul is the author here.

And it's not just one of his books, but it happens to be one of his prison epistles. Because he wrote prolifically while he was under house arrest there at Rome. And like Ephesians, which is another one, he was probably guarded by Roman soldiers, or at least they were nearby. Ephesians is where he gives the analogy of putting on the armor of God. Well, he's in prison here. And you could say, you know, here's a man who could easily have gotten down the dumps.

Of course, earlier in his life, he and Silas actually were in Philippi, and now he writes them again. But they were in Philippi there, the story in Acts 16, where they were put in prison back in the inner part of the prison. And at about midnight, what were they doing? Singing praises to God. And the prisoners heard them. In the earthquake and the breaking up of the prison.

Well, years later, he writes back to them. And you know, you talk about a man who would have had clout, because he'd been there. He'd been shipwrecked. He'd been beaten with rods many times. He'd been stolen. They thought he was dead. Well, he's in prison. And he says, Philippians 4, verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Verse 12, I know how to be a based. I know how to abound. I've learned to be full and to be hungry, to abound in the suffer need. All things through Christ who strengthens me.

I think a while ago I said four points. Let's make it five. I can't read my own notes. Number five is be thankful. Be thankful. We should pause and take stock, I think, every day for the good things that God has done for us. God has not held back from anything that we need. Now, we might want to debate that sometimes.

If we have an illness, if we have a trial that goes on and on, we might try to make our case to God that, well, if you'd just heal me, when from God's point of view, He looks and He sees what is being developed by the things that we suffer.

Paul also wrote, out of weakness, I was made strong. God has given us so much more than we need. And we do live in an age in gratitude. We are here in Philippians 4. Let's go up to verse 4. Rejoice in the Lord always. Always. Again, I say rejoice. Verse 6, Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, and with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Like every day we should take stock in what God has given us. And we can start at the beginning of the Bible and go to the end. In the beginning of the Bible, God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. And those words, image and likeness, have to do with eternity. In Ecclesiastes 3, it talks about how God has placed eternity in their hearts. And then in one of the Psalms, David looked up at the moon and stars at night and just asked, What is man that you are mindful of him? And he recognized there was a time when everything would be placed under man in the sense of man becoming spiritually the sons and daughters of God.

And we can go all the way to the end of the book. In Revelation 21, when it looks to a time of a new Jerusalem, a new heavens, a new earth, and a time when there will be no more sorrow, no more crying, no more tears, and ultimately, it all becomes new. There will be no death as the plan of God comes to full realization. And somewhere along the line, God looked down and there's over seven billion people on this earth.

And God looked down and called us. He called us to a very personal and intimate relationship with Him. And as we responded to that calling, He chose us to be a part of the very elect. The time came when we were baptized. We symbolically attended our own funeral. But we came up out of those waters to a new life.

We were given a spirit. We were given salvation that we're told don't neglect that salvation. And we looked to a full realization. And I think, again, if we can ponder and meditate on these things every day, we'll be well served. King David, there's so much about his life that is given to us. So many times, he hit the ruts of the road and made some horrible mistakes. But I'm still glad that his story is there by which we can learn.

There were plots against his life. He was chased. He was cursed. He lived in caves. He went over to Felicity and lived for a bit. He was in the wilderness. Let's go to Psalm 142. Psalm 142. We have here, toward the end of the overall book of Psalms, we have a number of Psalms that were written by King David. Once in a while, like with Psalm 142, it tells us where he was. It was a prayer when he was in a cave. Now, there are examples that we find back in 1 Samuel 2 Samuel, when he was fleeing for his life.

He was in the cave when Saul came in to do what was necessary. And Joab, you know, others wanted him to go there. And tried to say, God's delivered him, and your hand goes smiting. And David wouldn't lift his hand against God's anointed. But Psalm 142, I cried out to the Lord with my voice.

With my voice to the Lord, I make supplication. I pour out my complaint before him. I declare before him my trouble. You know, this is heavy. It's a pretty low time. Life's closed in on him. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then you knew my path. In the way in which I walk, they have secretly set a snare for me. Look on my right hand and see, for there's no one who acknowledges me. Refuge has failed me. No one cares for my life. I cried out to you, O Lord.

I said, you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low. Remember me from my persecutors, for they are stronger than I. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise your name. The righteous shall surround me, and you shall be bountifully with me. And so often you see David going through those patterns.

He's down. He breathes as though he's discouraged, disheartened, despondent, and yet he comes back up. He perseveres. Psalm 43, another psalm of David. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my supplications. In your faithfulness, answer me, and in your righteousness. Verse 3, the enemy has persecuted my soul. He has crushed my life to the ground. He's made me dwell in darkness, like those who have long been dead. Sounds like he's down the hole somewhere, hiding for his life once again.

Therefore, my spirit is overwhelmed with me. My heart within me is distressed. Sounds like he's without courage, disheartened at this time. But he goes back. He says, I remember the days of old. I meditate on all your works. I muse on the work of your hands. I spread out my hands to you. My soul longs for you like a thirsty land. Answer me speedily, O Lord, my spirit fails.

Do not hide your face from me, lest I be like those who go down to the pit, to the graves, what he's talking about. Verse 9, deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies, and you I take shelter. Verse 11, revive me, O Lord, for your name's sake. 144 goes on similarly, many places we could go.

He had every right humanly to sink down into the depths of discouragement, and yet he works on through. He lived the faith to the end. And the book of Acts calls him a man after God's own heart. Let's go to Psalm 17. I want to end with this one back here. Psalm 17. There's just a little word picture here tucked away in the Psalm. Another prayer of David. Another time when he cried out to God. The end of verse 1, there were deceitful lips talking about him. He'd obviously been stabbed in the back because verse 2, let my vindication come from your presence. Well, he knew he was being tested. Verse 6, I have called upon you, for you will hear me, O God, incline your ear to me and hear my speech. Show your marvelous loving kindness to your right hand, or by your right hand, O you who save those who trust in you, from those who rise up against them. Verse 8, keep me as the apple of your eye. Hide me under the shadow of your wings. I like that phrase, the apple of your eye. Marzullo says, the pupil. Have you ever gotten up close enough to another person? You probably have with a baby, or with a sibling, or with a spouse. Get up close enough to another person and look directly into their eye, and you'll see a reflection from their pupil of you, kind of a reverse. The Hebrew word I got here without it, but it wouldn't mean much to us anyhow, but the Hebrew word, if you look in the lexicon, it's identified as the little man. Keep me as the apple of your eye. And Barn's notes on this makes the comment that he wants God to watch over him so intently that it is as though he can turn and look to God and see his own reflection from the pupil of God's eye at any time. I like to think about that because sometimes life closes in on us. Sometimes it seems everything goes wrong. Sometimes it seems all news is bad news, not only around the world, but within our own family and maybe within our own life. And then if we lie down at night and we wake up and we're troubled, maybe we ought to think of that little word picture that we can look and ask God to keep us as the apple of his eye. And to gather us under the shadow of his wings. You've probably seen pictures of, say, a swan or any bird like that. A swan, though, I've seen photos where it's floating out over a lake and under its wings you've got all these little heads sticking out. And that sets the word picture that is painted there as well. But whenever life closes in on us and we lose jobs, and we face heartache, and we face sickness, and we have distress in many ways, we look to God and ask Him to keep us, to watch over so closely that we are the apple of His eye. The Apostle Peter said, To cast your cares on Him, Christ, for He cares for you. And to the degree that we look to God and look to Christ, to that degree, we can successfully battle the plague called discouragement.